32 Notes on Reekiok. 



bably due more to the ill-will of his neighbours than to the curse 

 of his predecessor. The Rerrick ghost, whose noisy manifesta- 

 tions at Ringcroft of Stocking baffled a whole Presbytery in 1695, 

 and were the subject of a grave narrative by the Rev. Alexander 

 Telfair, minister of the parish, was brought under notice. The 

 visit of Queen Mary to the district on her flight from Langside 

 was another subject of notice. The writers followed Froude's 

 account, according to which the hapless Queen halted first at 

 Sanquhar ; then went to Terregles, where she spent the night of 

 14th May ; from there went on the loth to Dundrennan, spent her 

 last night in the Abbey ; and on the morning of Sunday, the 16th, 

 sailed from Burnfoot in an open boat, landing- in the evening at 

 Workington. The other account, adopted by Mackenzie in the 

 " History of Galloway," by Miss Strickland, and by M'Kerlie, was 

 shewn to be inherently improbable. This account made the Queen 

 ride without stopping from Langside to a hill in Tongland now 

 called Queenshill, but which was called Barstobrick until 1800; 

 then ride further south, cross the Dee, and then go to Cori-a Castle, 

 in Kirkgunzeon, where she spent the night of the 13th (the date of 

 the battle) ; proceed next day to Terregles, and on the 15th go to 

 Dundrennan. Attached to this tradition was a story that she 

 spent the night at Hazelfield, near the Abbey, and presented to a 

 boy of the family a ruby ring and a damask table-cloth bearing 

 the royal arms. It was strange she should have carried that table- 

 cloth when, by her account, she was in "a condition not even 

 suiting a simple gentlewoman, having saved nothing." It had 

 been stated that the ring and table-cloth were preserved at Ter- 

 regles ; but no such articles connected with Queen Mary were 

 known there. It was further mentioned that Maryport, in 

 Cumberland, which is popularly supposed to be the place at which 

 the royal fugitive landed, was formerly Ellensport, and was 

 changed about a hundred years ago in honour of the daughter of a 

 local benefactor ; and that although Portmary, on the Scotch 

 shore, undoubtedly received its modern name out of compliment 

 to the Queen, it was known as Nether Riddick within the memory 

 of persons still living. Some attention was bestowed on " the Nun 

 Slab" in the Abbey burial-ground, with its much disputed figure 

 and inscription. Mr M'Conachie showed that the animals on 

 which the lady's feet rests are dogs, not lambs ; that while the 

 figure is that of a nun there is nothing to indicate the rank of a 



